Published & Black Podcast
Welcome to the Published + Black Podcast, where the worlds of self-publishing, business, and life converge. I'm Tiffany A Green-Hood, your host, Publisher, Author, Coach, and Design Strategist. Join me each week as we delve into the hidden stories behind self-publishing triumphs and the intricate world of publishing.
Together, we'll illuminate the brilliance of black authors, exploring their captivating narratives and honoring their achievements. Our journey doesn't stop there – we'll delve into the art of crafting impactful author brands that extend beyond books and messages.
Prepare to dive into profound discussions, gain invaluable insights, and unlock the secrets of navigating the ever-evolving landscape of self-publishing, while touching on crucial aspects of both business and life. Whether you're a wordsmith, an entrepreneur, or simply in pursuit of inspiration, the Published + Black Podcast is your empowerment destination. Tune in, learn, and embrace the journey with me, your host, Tiffany. 🎧📚
Published & Black Podcast
“The Publishing Trap: Mistakes That Keep Black Authors Broke” (Rejoice102.com)
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Tiffany A. Greenhood exposes the predatory practices of vanity publishing companies and shares how Black authors can avoid contract traps that steal their profits and ownership rights.
• Vanity publishers like AuthorHouse and Exlibris offer publishing packages from $500-$15,000 that provide minimal value
• These companies take up to 90% of royalties while charging authors triple the printing cost for their own books
• When publishing with vanity companies, authors don't own their ISBN or often even their book cover
• Authors should always read contracts carefully and understand what rights they're signing away
• Self-publishing gives authors complete ownership and control over their intellectual property
• Global distribution means your book is available worldwide, not just on Amazon
• Marketing begins before you finish writing your book, not after publication
• Being a New York Times bestseller only requires selling 6,000 books in the first week
For marketing tips and strategies, download a free ebook at publishwithtiffany.com. Browse the online magazine at publishedinblackmagazine.com and book a discovery call to potentially be featured on the show.
Stay tuned for Published in Black, the go-to radio show for black authors, creatives and entrepreneurs ready to turn their stories into success. Hosted by publishing expert and brand strategist, Tiffany A Greenhood, Each show will deliver real talk, powerful strategies and insider knowledge on self-publishing, brand building, wealth creation and making an impact with your voice. Whether you're writing your first book, growing your business or scaling or scaling your influence, published in black will equip you with the tools, inspiration and unapologetic confidence to thrive. Listen now and be informed hey, happy tuesday.
Speaker 2:This is published in black radio. I am your host, tiffany A Greenhood. All right, y'all, we gonna dig in today. Today is gonna be amazing, just like every show. If this your first time listening. I am Tiffany A Greenhood. I am the I would call myself the self-publishing guru.
Speaker 2:Okay, I tell you what to do, what not to do, what you need to do, what you need to stop doing, and all that when it pertains to self publishing, your book, building a brand and making a name for yourself. Getting to the money I'll show you how to get to the money. Okay, so the last two shows we actually talked about digital products and creating seven streams of income. Okay, so not just. You know, you've been working a nine to five your whole life and you published a book, and now you're expecting this book to just get you straight to the millions. I'm not saying that it cannot, but there are certain things that you need to do that you need to have in place and be consistent with in order for that to happen. So, and start with your mindset. So we went over all of that today.
Speaker 2:Today, I want to get back to mistakes that keep black authors broke. Okay, mistakes that keep black authors broke. That is what we're going to tap into today. Okay, so we're going to talk about a lot of common things that I see that I've seen in my experience of publishing self-publishing my own books, self-publishing with clients, and just kind of just seeing across social media like just yeah, so I've been full time with publishing since 2017, but in the industry and just kind of like learning so much since 07. Okay, so it's a lot that I've seen and I kind of just see this stuff over and over again. So we're gonna go over that today. So you know what not to do. Okay, because I don't want to see you lose. I definitely want to see you win. All right, so we are going to.
Speaker 2:We're gonna start with stop being scammed by the vanity publishing companies Number one. So, basically, we're going to hone in the contracts, contracts, contracts. Everybody wants their book done. Um, I get it. I get it. You want to publish a book. You got a prophecy that you was going to be an author and all this stuff. I've heard it all Okay, but the thing is, is that we get so in tune with adapting to the title of published author and being able to say, oh, I published my book.
Speaker 2:I got a book and this and that, that, um, we lose sight of common sense. We got to stop that. Please stop that. Stop losing sight of common sense and read.
Speaker 2:Number one the best way not to get scammed or caught up in a contract that you cannot get out of and now you owe this person all this money is to read. Read the black and white. Read the small print for one. Ok, read the small print. That's the number one for one. Okay, read the small print. That's the number one thing that will stop you from getting caught up. Read Contracts are not that difficult. Now, if you don't understand the language and they got it so deep to where you don't understand the language you can look up those words. Or if there's someone you know that is an attorney or someone you trust because it does not have to be an attorney I'm not an attorney and I know what a bad contract look like when it comes to publishing OK, so confide in somebody that you know so that you don't get stuck in these contracts.
Speaker 2:Y'all won't believe how many people have come to me who have already published books and stuck in contracts Okay, and some of them are the way you. I don't know how you're going to get out, but most of them you can get out of them. Um, when it comes to the vanity publishing companies, when I say vanity publishing companies, that means the companies that pop up. When you go and Google how to self-publish my book, all of these companies pop up. One popular one is AuthorHouse Exilibrous. Authorhouse Exilibrous oh, it's a lot of them, because a lot of them are under the same umbrella.
Speaker 2:I dug into this thing some years ago and saw how it was all set up. They all offer publishing packages ranging from four or 500 bucks up to maybe like 15,000. And when I go down the list of what you get included with those packages, it's really nothing. In my eyesight. It's nothing Because I'm looking like okay, that ain't nothing, that ain't nothing, that ain't nothing. What you really need is you need to learn the business. That's why I come on here and I talk about what I talk about in detail when it comes to self-publishing, because it's too much that you don't know and too much that you need to know. So you don't get stuck. So you know how to take that book and turn it into them six figures that you want to make, or millions, or whatever it was your goal was initially was.
Speaker 2:So, when it comes to the contracts, read the black and white. It's simple. Okay, stop Take your feelings out of it, because this ain't about your feelings. This ain't about how God called you. You got to handle this business. When it comes to handling this business, you got to read the black and white and make sure you're not signing your name to something that you don't want.
Speaker 2:Ok and so? Because what vanity publishing companies do? And some independent publishing companies like people like me, you know they had their own publishing company and they do traditional contracts. I do not do traditional contracts for my own personal reasons. Okay, but you do have a lot of independent publishers out here who will get you as well, and they ain't all names that you've never heard of. Some of them are names that you know very well.
Speaker 2:Okay, so be careful being starstruck when it comes to signing a publishing contract. Okay, I'm not gonna say a deal, because a lot of me no deals. Okay, let's talk about it. Stop thinking everything is a book deal. No, it's not. Some of it is a trap. So read, educate yourself, okay, and if you truly want to, of course, I always talk about self-publishing because I want you to kind of like, do this yourself. I want you to be able to learn I get it. Everybody not going to do that, but at least, as you are choosing someone even if it's me, whoever it is, because it don't have to be me I just want you to get it done, right, ok. So even when it comes to that, ask questions.
Speaker 2:The biggest thing that you want from publishing your book, when you're going through a company or signing some type of contract, is for you to own everything. So write that down. Ownership that's the biggest thing is ownership. Nobody thinks about that when it comes to publishing. Most are just geek to just become an author. Oh, congratulations, do the book, sign and all that, and then nothing happens. I've seen it for years. I've seen it for years, okay, and you have to get past that. Don't get caught up in the title. And yet you're signing over stuff that you don't wanna. You know what I'm saying? I know people now still stuck in contracts and it's been 10 years. They ain't made no money, the person didn't give them what they said they were going to give them in the contract and they just sit and they don't even have their own copy of their own book. They can't even order their own books. It's crazy. It's authors that don't even know how to how to go and order copies of their own books.
Speaker 2:And then, when you go through these publishing companies, these vanity companies, they, they're going to charge you three times what your book really costs. Let's say your book is about 200 pages. Just give you an example your book is going to cost you between three and four dollars to print. Your book is going to cost you between three and four dollars to print. Ok, real talk. Ok, that's great. You sell it for 20, 25, 27,. Whatever your price is, don't matter. You see all that profit on there, right, but what the vanity companies do is number one author house. Go look them up. I know what I'm talking about. Go look them up. When you go through them, when you go through one of their author agreements, they don't call them contracts, they call them author agreements. When you go through them and you sign an author agreement number one, they're going to have you choose a package. Then they're going to have you sign this author agreement. That's you signing to give them 90% of your royalties. Crazy, crazy, I know. Right, and on that note. I'm going to take a quick break.
Speaker 3:And I'm going to tell you the rest when we come back. I am Lord all by myself. I don't need any help. I can handle things on my own. I am the first and the last. Whatever you be, just ask, for I am, I am.
Speaker 4:I am God. I was dead in the beginning and I'll be there when you have to leave. I'm all seeing, all knowing All my dear, every single thing, For I am, I am. I am God. I'll be glad in the beginning, yeah, and I'll be glad when you get to me. I'm all seeing, all knowing all mighty.
Speaker 2:Hey, now, I am God, I am God, I am God. So get this information that my daughter is dropping. Okay, am God, I am God, I am God. So get this information that my daughter is dropping, okay. So, um, like I was saying once you um signed that contract, they are locking you in to take 90% of your royalties, which means you is not even that you're going to get that 10%, because the 10% is going to come after they take out all their fees and all this extra stuff. It boils down to this and I've seen this on one of their websites before If your book is because they'll price your book, look, this is what they do.
Speaker 2:They price your ebook at $3.99. They all do the same thing, same exact system they price your ebook at $3.99. They price your paperback at $19.99. And they price your hardcover at $29.99. They all do this, okay, two popular ones Author House and Exilibrist.
Speaker 2:I know what I'm talking about, okay, and so, once they do that, if your book there was an example they had on there if your book is priced at $15.99, your royalty, after they take out all the fees, is $3 and some change $3 and some change $3 and some change. And I mentioned how they jack your book up three times what it really costs. So, like I said, if your book is 200 pages, it's not going to be no more than $5. It's going to be between maybe $3 and $4, maybe $4, and some change the printers go up every year. Okay, that's just what. It is inflation, whatever. So just get over that. But again, if you are paying let's say you paying $4, if you pay $4 for your book and you're selling your book for $20, that's still $16 in there, not to mention shipping or whatever but don't trip.
Speaker 2:And when you ship your book shipping or whatever, but don't trip. And when you ship your book, when you ship your book from the post office, make sure you tell them media mail there's a special rate for media, any kind of media. If you are shipping music, books, magazines, anything that's considered media, ask for the media rate because it's way less than the regular rate. Fyi, okay, thank me later. All right, so this contract that you signed? So yeah, they get 90 and you're keeping. Um, really, it turned out to be maybe like six or seven percent, which is some garbage. It's some garbage. Why take yourself through all of that? And a lot of people sign with these companies number one because they don't know and they really think they're getting some type of deal.
Speaker 2:Okay, even now I could post something like that on social media and you will have somebody in the comments telling me something oh well, I did my book with them and I got a good deal. No, you didn't. Duh, you know what I'm saying. So you got to know your stuff, stuff, because you will be ding, ding like them times. You got a good deal and no, you did not do. You know all the money that you know was taken from you the three times. I didn't explain that to you. So if your book is, your book is four dollars at 200 pages. They're not gonna charge you four dollars and I get it. It's business. You gotta know business. They're going to charge you, um, between 11 and 12 bucks for your book. That really cost. Ask me how? I know I have had so many authors come to me where I end up republishing the book for them.
Speaker 2:We canceled, canceled the contract. There's a specific letter that you can um y'all, I ain't know how to do none of this. I know now, like I literally went and found out how to cancel the contract. This lady came to me. She was with Exilibrus, um, her book was like 70,000 words. Y'all should have seen the cover was garbage, complete garbage. We're gonna talk about the covers. I'm gonna try to squeeze in the covers today as well. That's very important.
Speaker 2:But um canceled the contract. I wrote the letter, we sent the letter in and basically you, you send the letter in writing because I think it is something some of them have something in their contracts where you have to present in writing to cancel. So when they, when they mean that, mean you, you serious, you about to redo this book because it's still your story, understand that whoever you publish with your story, never, never, can convert over to them, unless, unless you were so ignorant that you signed a contract that said you were signing everything over to them. Now, this is why I say it's important to read black and white. Stop being thirsty and pay attention to what you're signing, because if you signed it away, I don't know how you can turn that around. But the contracts, when you sign these contracts, make sure you're reading.
Speaker 2:Okay, um, so we were able to cancel the contract. That meant that they were going to take everything down, so all the book that they had on the thing and we want them to do that. It was okay Because, understand, when they publish your book, the ISBN number, the little barcode on the back, the barcode on the back of the book, right, the little barcode that's on the back of any book, that's supposed to be yours when you self-publish. But when you go through them, it's not yours, it's theirs. Okay, it's theirs. And so when they take the book down, they taking everything down.
Speaker 2:So if they got your book, most of the time they do put your book in distribution, meaning that global distribution means that your book is available. When you see people advertise their books across social media and they say that the book is, um, available wherever books are sold, that's what that means Global distribution. Every book that I publish for my clients, we put it in global distribution. I wouldn't have it no other way. You never, in my opinion, my advice never just upload your book to Amazon. I love Amazon, but that's only one platform. You're limiting yourself when you do not access global distribution. Global distribution means that even the bookstores inside the airport have access to carry your book, even if it's not physically in the store.
Speaker 2:Y'all still caught up on your book being on the shelf. Stop being caught up with that. It's nothing wrong with that. But if your book is not on the shelf but it's on their website and it's in the system because they're all, global distribution is huge. That means your book is available all over the world, anywhere books are sold. That means that there's websites that you never heard of that your book is available on. Hello somebody, you dig what I'm saying. You got to pay attention. Stop being concerned with the physical. You just want it in the store so you can say, oh, my book in the store, my book in the store, and yet your mind is not focused on selling. What are we doing? Your mind ain't focused on selling. You have to be focused on how do I take this book, learn this, learn how to sell it. Okay, and the selling actually starts. We're going to have to do a part two. The selling actually starts before you finish writing a book. It starts before you finish writing a book. Okay, we're going to take a break.
Speaker 3:I know you're praying for a change To see a sunny day. Nothing good has come your way for so long. You need someone to understand.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, that's what we want you to do yes, but know your breakthrough's not far away.
Speaker 3:So hold on. Please don't let go in this season.
Speaker 1:Know that thou is no way way far.
Speaker 4:You just hold on. Come on, Monica. Sometimes we forget that he holds us in his hands, but I'm reminding you. Don't give up. Sometimes your skies may seem dark and gray. We all have days like that. Just know your breakthrough's not far away. Just know your breakthrough's not far away.
Speaker 2:Hey, hold on, hold on, hold on because I got some more information for you. Okay, I'm trying to help you change your life, change your situation, especially your financial situation. Okay, so, once they I don't remember where we left off, but once they, once we cancel the contract, they're going to take it down. Remember the ISBN and everything that's in there, like even if they did your cover for you or they use the picture or something, like they, they claim all that. So they, like you ain't taking nothing with you. The only thing you taking with you is your story. So hopefully you have a copy of the. I think we actually were able to find something because, again, her book was like 70,000 words. That's a lot, um, and they had packed it in so heavy and then gave her a little wet cover. The cover was black with a baby on it and it said something. I don't even remember what the original thing, um, the title was, but it was just sad. So, um, in order for me to republish it, put her in um back in global distribution. Now what we were doing was taking it out of everything, out of their name, and republishing the entire book. That's what happens when you sign bad contracts you need to republish that entire book. It can be the same book, same name and all that. But when you republish with your own cover meaning you go pay a graphic designer or whatever and you purchase your own ISBNs Okay, we talked about that a few weeks ago to ISBNs and trademarks and copyrights and all that, um, you're still the owner, the copyright owner, of your um book, your manuscript, your story. But they say, uh-uh, we did this cover for you, we keeping that, we did this, um this, we, we put this ISBN on here, on it's uh, that's ours. It's cool because you get with somebody who know how to go and purchase help. You purchase your own ISBN number so that it's in your name, your company name, your imprint, whatever you want to call it, and then, um, your cover as well. So then now we can learn how to sell the book, now that we completely own it, now we can sell it. We don't have no, have no limitations.
Speaker 2:Okay, because there's several other things you could do with your book. You can turn your book into, um, a film, a documentary movie, whatever. You don't gotta sit and wait for someone to say, okay, it's good enough. I have a problem with that. I don't believe in that. I mean, it's cool if you know your opportunities and things, but you got to make sure that it works for you. We ain't just signing up for nothing, just like these. These little contract, these bad guys have people getting this stuff because they jump at, oh, we'll pay for everything, not knowing that the behind the scenes reason why they want to pay for everything is because everything gonna be under them, not you.
Speaker 2:So, um, I've had clients who published books five years ago and and messaged me to my um, how can I order my books, like what? You don't even know how to order your book. You don't know how to order, and it wasn't the night that I did not teach that. I coach very strategically, very detailed. But again, if your mindset is like, oh, I'm about to be an author, oh, I want to be on Oprah, it's still people walking around. Some of them want to be on Oprah. She don't even have a show, no more. Like what? What are we doing? Like what? What are we doing?
Speaker 2:So you got to get to the point to where you are focused on learning the business how to take your story, your message, because you should not be focused on the book. That is why so many people suffer. When it comes to you, you just hear oh, ain't nobody behind books? Ain't nobody behind books? And across social media you see them posting their book over and over again. They just want you to click and buy their book. They do that stuff to me. I'm not buying your book, no, stop. I tell them now, stop doing it. I'm not buying your book. Um, your book is not for me. You know now, if you want to learn how to stop doing this, you can join my email list. You dig. So it's so many things.
Speaker 2:We are going to do a part two on this, because I need for people to get this. Self-publishing is a lot of responsibility, but I will always say that it's worth it. Okay, celebrities who already have an audience and fan base don't need to sign a book deal with these big publishing companies and they do. And let me tell you, they don't make no money. Y'all think they make a lot of money from these books. They do not. No. All you need to be a New York Times bestseller is to sell 6,000 books in the first week. That's it. It ain't none deep. You know what I'm saying. So I think we need to stop this overall show would say stop being so um inspired by titles and learn the ins and outs of the business so that you can own and profit and increase. That's the only way you're going to do that, okay. So we'll do a part two next week. Be sure to go to um.
Speaker 2:Publish with tiffanycom. Join my email list. There is a free ebook on there you can download for um marketing. It gives you marketing tips, different marketing strategies. So I give that free to authors who are maybe stuck in you know not sure how to market their book. So you can download that ebook at publishwithtiffanycom. You want to go to publishedandblackmagazinecom and check out my online and print magazine. You do have the opportunity to get featured in the magazine. I offer that. I also offer in studio or live radio interviews. If you like to be hosted on my show, you can contact me at. If you go to publishwithtiffanycom book a discovery call. If you go to publishwithtiffanycom book a discovery call, okay, and then you can possibly be featured. I am all about the self-published author, okay, and learning the business. So I hope today, blessed, you Go to publishwithtiffanycom. Join the email list so you can stay in tune with any and everything I have going on All right and, with that being said, be blessed. Join the email list so you can stay in tune with any and everything.
Speaker 1:I have going on All right and, with that being said, be blessed you have been listening to, published in Black with publishing expert and brand strategist, tiffany A Greenhood. Listen next week for real talk, powerful strategies and much more. Again, we thank you for listening.
